Animal Farm
About the novel (from Wikipedia): Animal Farm is an allegorical novella by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945.[1][2] The book tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where the animals can be equal, free, and happy. Ultimately, however, the rebellion is betrayed, and the farm ends up in a state as bad as it was before, under the dictatorship of a pig named Napoleon.
According to Orwell, the fable reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union.[3][4] Orwell, a democratic socialist,[5] was a critic of Joseph Stalin and hostile to Moscow-directed Stalinism, an attitude that was critically shaped by his experiences during the Spanish Civil War.[6][a] The Soviet Union, he believed, had become a brutal dictatorship built upon a cult of personality and enforced by a reign of terror. In a letter to Yvonne Davet, Orwell described Animal Farm as a satirical tale against Stalin ("un conte satirique contre Staline"),[7] and in his essay "Why I Write" (1946), wrote that Animal Farm was the first book in which he tried, with full consciousness of what he was doing, "to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole".[8]
The original title was Animal Farm: A Fairy Story, but U.S. publishers dropped the subtitle when it was published in 1946, and only one of the translations during Orwell's lifetime kept it. Other titular variations include subtitles like "A Satire" and "A Contemporary Satire".[7] Orwell suggested the title Union des républiques socialistes animales for the French translation, which abbreviates to URSA, the Latin word for "bear", a symbol of Russia. It also played on the French name of the Soviet Union, Union des républiques socialistes soviétiques.[7]
Orwell wrote the book between November 1943 and February 1944, when the UK was in its wartime alliance with the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany, and the British people and intelligentsia held Stalin in high esteem, a phenomenon Orwell hated.[b] The manuscript was initially rejected by a number of British and American publishers,[9] including one of Orwell's own, Victor Gollancz, which delayed its publication. It became a great commercial success when it did appear partly because international relations were transformed as the wartime alliance gave way to the Cold War.[10]
Time magazine chose the book as one of the 100 best English-language novels (1923 to 2005);[11] it also featured at number 31 on the Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Novels,[12] and number 46 on the BBC's The Big Read poll.[13] It won a Retrospective Hugo Award in 1996[14] and is included in the Great Books of the Western World selection.[15]
According to Orwell, the fable reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union.[3][4] Orwell, a democratic socialist,[5] was a critic of Joseph Stalin and hostile to Moscow-directed Stalinism, an attitude that was critically shaped by his experiences during the Spanish Civil War.[6][a] The Soviet Union, he believed, had become a brutal dictatorship built upon a cult of personality and enforced by a reign of terror. In a letter to Yvonne Davet, Orwell described Animal Farm as a satirical tale against Stalin ("un conte satirique contre Staline"),[7] and in his essay "Why I Write" (1946), wrote that Animal Farm was the first book in which he tried, with full consciousness of what he was doing, "to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole".[8]
The original title was Animal Farm: A Fairy Story, but U.S. publishers dropped the subtitle when it was published in 1946, and only one of the translations during Orwell's lifetime kept it. Other titular variations include subtitles like "A Satire" and "A Contemporary Satire".[7] Orwell suggested the title Union des républiques socialistes animales for the French translation, which abbreviates to URSA, the Latin word for "bear", a symbol of Russia. It also played on the French name of the Soviet Union, Union des républiques socialistes soviétiques.[7]
Orwell wrote the book between November 1943 and February 1944, when the UK was in its wartime alliance with the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany, and the British people and intelligentsia held Stalin in high esteem, a phenomenon Orwell hated.[b] The manuscript was initially rejected by a number of British and American publishers,[9] including one of Orwell's own, Victor Gollancz, which delayed its publication. It became a great commercial success when it did appear partly because international relations were transformed as the wartime alliance gave way to the Cold War.[10]
Time magazine chose the book as one of the 100 best English-language novels (1923 to 2005);[11] it also featured at number 31 on the Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Novels,[12] and number 46 on the BBC's The Big Read poll.[13] It won a Retrospective Hugo Award in 1996[14] and is included in the Great Books of the Western World selection.[15]
Resources
The book Animal Farm is in the public domain, which essentially means that anyone can provide a copy of it in any format without violating copyright law. What that means for us is that there are many ways to get access to the text. Below are a few of them.
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The Novel, the easy way:
Here is the novel Animal Farm as a downloadable .pdf file. And here you can find a number of formats to choose from, including ePub and Kindle format. Audio Versions of the novel:
There are any number of free audio versions of this novel, including individual chapters on YouTube. Feel free to find your own, or here's one from YouTube that has the entire novel. |
THE SCHOOL-APPROVED METHOD: JISD has purchased access to Teen Book Cloud, which has literally thousands of electronic books to enjoy. While this is a clunky way to get to Animal Farm, perhaps you'll find other books to enjoy there. You'll need to open the document below for the district username and password information.
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Assignments
Week 1: 20-24 April, 2020
Complete (from below):
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Week 2: 27 April - 1 May, 2020
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Week 3: 4-8 May, 2020
- Read Chapters 5-6 (link to text).
- Respond to the Deep Thought Question in Google Classroom.
- Take the Chapter 6 Test as many times as you'd like. I'll pull your highest grade on Friday, 8 May, 2020.
Week 4: 11-15 May, 2020
- Read Chapters 7-8 (link to text).
- Respond to the Deep Thought Question in Google Classroom